The Balint Society is a Charitable Organisation which aims to promote and advance discussion groups using the Balint method. To do this the Society holds meetings, workshops and talks open to our members and non- members, helps people to set up Balint Groups and trains people in Balint Group Leadership. The purpose of holding your personal information is to enable you to make full use of what the Society has to offer and to engage you in being an active part of the Society if you wish.

What personal information do we hold about you and why?

Our database

We maintain a computer database linked to the Balint Society website which is managed by a software programme called CiviCRM (seehttps://civicrm.org/about). The database is hosted on the secure server of a UK based IT company, which also provides us with technical support.

Reports containing personal information are downloaded from this server onto computers and tablets belonging to a limited number of people from within the Society, who are carrying out Society business eg. accounting, Gift Aid claims, event organisation and planning. Such data are retained outside the server for the length of time necessary to complete the task and are then deleted. The Society has a Data Protection Plan in place to minimise the risk of data loss and a Data Protection Officer (the Secretary) to oversee this.

The personal information that we store is provided by you when you join as a member, register for an event or request to be included in our mailing list.

Each person on our database has a contact record with name, postal address, email address and telephone number so that we can send out details of news and events. Members receive a hard copy of the annual Journal of the Balint Society, and invitation to the Society AGM and matters related to the Society Constitution.

We also collect information about gender and profession / job role which helps event organisers when putting groups together for events and helps Council to think about the needs of professional groups and where outreach work might be needed.

The contact record details which events you have attended, your membership status and payments made related to these, including Gift Aid registration. A record of attendance at events and membership status are important if you wish to train as a Balint Group Leader. There is a section for dietary, mobility and sensory needs so that these can be catered for at events.

Contacts may be identified in one or more groups by us, to allow relevant information and invitations to be communicated, or for administrative purposes. Examples are members, those attending an event, accredited leaders, those living in a geographical region or attending a regional peer group. The Society is in the process of identifying nominated regional leads as a way of helping those interested in Balint work in a geographical area to form links where this is agreed. We may ask people in a region to help new contacts find a group or information about local Balint activity, but only after seeking your permission first.

Website Cookies

A cookie is a small piece of data that is stored on your computer or mobile device when you visit our website. Like many websites, we use cookies to collect additional website usage data to operate our services.

Cookies are set to help navigate you around our website, and if/when you decide to share information about our events via the social media buttons on the site.

Use of Third Parties/Third Party software

We presently use the services of the following third party software providers to manage our data processing needs. We do not authorise these organisations to use your personal information in any other way and require them to protect your information to the same degree that we do:

1. GoCardless – a UK registered and Financial Conduct Authority (seehttps://www.fca.org.uk/) approved payment processor handling card transactions and direct debits
2. PayPal – a payment processor used to handle event fees. PayPal is not UK based and therefore not subject to FCA jurisdiction. However, it is signed up to the Financial Ombudsman Service’s voluntary jurisdiction (seehttp://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/faq/businesses/vj.html) . This means that PayPal allows the Financial Ombudsman Service to handle complaints and agrees to be bound by their decisions as it would do under compulsory jurisdiction

3. Sage One – an off-the-shelf proprietary software product used by our Treasurer to interrogate our bank account(s) and generate the required reports to manage the Society’s finances
4. To be confirmed – a third party mapping software provider (negotiations in progress) which will enable us to map our current membership (for internal use) and provide a searchable index (for public use) to display the locations and details of active Balint group work and events across the UK on our website.

Apart from the above we do not share your personal information with third parties without your permission.

Information use for the Leadership Accreditation process

If you are interested in Leadership accreditation we ask you to fill in a first draft of the accreditation form (which is on our website) and submit it electronically to the Leadership team as directed.

This is a record of your portfolio of Balint experience to be used by yourself, your supervisor and the Leadership team to assess your experience in relation to the criteria for accreditation published on the website and determine what further experience may be necessary in terms of training, leading groups and supervision. This information is usually shared among members of the Leadership team. When you and your supervisor feel you are ready to be accredited we ask you to update this form and submit it together with your supervisor’s reference to the leadership team who may give further advice. They will then forward these two documents to the Secretary to be considered at Council i.e. they will be available to all members of Council. The documents will be filed permanently by the Secretary of the Society.

As someone on the accreditation pathway you may be contacted by the leadership team and your regional representative about events such as training, peer group supervision, opportunities to run Balint groups, local Balint initiatives, talks, publications and other matters relevant to your training as a Balint Leader.

After Accreditation

On accreditation you will be identified on our database as an Accredited Leader. As an Accredited Leader the Society will bring to your attention a range of activities locally and nationally such as further Leadership training, peer group supervision, opportunities to run Balint groups, local Balint initiatives, becoming a supervisor, organising Balint society events, talks, publications, international events and other issues particularly relevant to accredited leaders.

Your rights under this Privacy Policy

Effective 25th May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) require us to state the lawful purpose under which we collect and use your personal information.

For MEMBERS the lawful purpose is a CONTRACT. This means that in return for your membership fee the Balint Society will keep you up to date with news and inform you about events, give you the opportunity to apply for accreditation as a Balint group leader after training and send you a copy of the Journal each year. You are entitled to end your membership at any time by contacting the Secretary*. Your data will be retained for 6 months after the end of the tax year following the end of your membership year, as it will be needed for accounting and Gift Aid claim purposes.

For NON MEMBERS the lawful purpose is CONSENT. This means that you have full control of the data we keep and you have the right to withdraw your consent to be contacted and for your data to be used, at any time, by contacting the Secretary*.

You are entitled to have a copy of the information that the Balint Society holds about you. To access this, you should send a written request to the Secretary*, who will verify your identity before sending the information to reach you within one month.

You can ask for inaccurate or out of date information to be corrected or ask for your data to be deleted by contacting the Secretary*.

If you have concerns that the Balint Society has not handled your personal information in accordance with the GDPR 2018 you are entitled to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (https://ico.org.uk/concerns/handling/).

The Status of this Privacy Policy

We may revise this policy from time to time. The most current version of the policy will govern our processing of your personal data and will always be available on the Society’s website. If we make changes to this policy that, in our sole discretion, is material, we will notify you via email. By continuing to access and accept emails from the Society after those changes become effective you agree to be bound by the revised Privacy Policy.

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Copyright

International Balint Federation

The International Balint Federation (IBF) was formed in 1972 to co-ordinate Balint thinking, development and research amongst member countries. Details of IBF activities, publications and links to international societies can be found on the IBF website